Chapter 11: The Cost of Purification
The women stared at each other, the single purification potion sitting between them. They both needed it. A half dose would do neither of them any good. Amber needed the potion or she would transform. Theresa needed the potion or she would die.
“I’m not taking the potion.” Amber shook her head. “I’m not dying. You are.”
“Becoming an infected werewolf might as well mean death.” Theresa said, and coughed a bloody cough into her hand again. “I will not let the lady I have shepherded from childhood to womanhood become a beast. I will not let you become a pariah shunned by society. You will not end up like these ones did.”
Amber shook her head again, “I refuse. I am not letting you die.”
They stared at each other, neither blinking. Amber felt her ears itching, and noticed that she could hear Theresa’s heartbeat now. She flicked her ears to deal with the itch. Then she realized her ears had grown long and pointed.
Theresa grimaced. “I can’t force this potion down your throat without risking spilling it, can I?”
Amber felt her teeth growing in jaws as she clenched, “You can’t. So I guess we’re stuck here. But once I change, you’ll have no reason not to take the potion. So as long as you’re hearty enough to survive longer than it takes me to change, I’ll win.”
Theresa went silent for a moment and looked at the ground. Then she said, “You’re right. You’re completely correct. If you change before I die, there’s no reason for me not to take the potion. And if I die first, there will be nothing to stop you from taking the potion.”
Amber nodded, and they stared again.
“You cannot make yourself transform any faster than you are.” Theresa said.
She went silent again. Amber cocked her head. And then Theresa spoke again.
“You can’t change faster than you already are. And that is the weakness of your position.”
“What do you mean?” Amber asked, alarm growing in her voice.
“You’ll change when you change. You have no control over that. The same isn’t true for me.”
“No. No! No! No!” Amber scrambled towards Theresa. But the older woman slipped past Amber and picked her blunderbuss out of the pile of weapons in the cabin.
“Please no!” Amber cried. “I need you! Don’t leave me!”
“I’ve taken you this far. You must go the rest of the way.” Theresa said, and she placed the barrel of the rifle under her chin and pulled the trigger.
Her face erupted in crimson and Amber fell backward in shock. The headless body swayed and then toppled forward to lay beside Amber. She looked at the fallen form of her bodyguard and began to sob. Then she scrunched her face and wiped her eyes.
“I can’t let that be in vain.” Amber said, “She died to save me. So now I have to be sure that she succeeded.”
Hefting herself to her feet Amber walked to the chest and picked the potion. She popped the stopper and swallowed the liquid in three gulps. Then she waited. At first, nothing happened.
She waited, was she too late?
And then pain shot through her body. Her skin sizzled, smoke and steam rose from her body and she screamed. Her skin cracked and broke. She felt herself crying and then noticed that the tears landing on the ground were red. Her bones screamed inside her flesh. And her insides roiled. The transformation was nearly complete. The potion was trying to excise huge portions of her body. Fear lanced through her, would the purification process kill her?
The pain overwhelmed her and she crumpled to the ground. For minutes she writhed on the ground in agony. And then, finally, she lay still. She did not move, did not even breathe. And then a single ragged breath shook her prone form. She pulled herself to her hands and her knees. Her senses felt small and weak compared to what she had lost. Her hands felt weak and fragile compared to what she’d had moments earlier. She was cured, mere human once more. And she was fragile and alone in a hostile wilderness. She pulled herself to her feet.
“I’m stronger than this. I may yet live. I will push through.”
Outside she heard the surviving werewolves recovering and preparing to charge the hut. She couldn’t fight now. But they were wounded by silver and they wouldn’t heal. She could run. Could they still pursue her with their wounds? Amber decided that she would find out.
She wasn’t dead yet.
The End
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